Dr. Tim Desmond:

As it turns out, given the nature of the examination paper, there was a completion booklet and no choices were offered as a matter of course. In such cases, the majority of candidates tend to attack papers in a linear fashion, working from front to back. The average marks stacked up solidly across the paper and there was no obvious diminution of quality. It is not just a question of attempts but actual outcomes.

As far as feedback is concerned and the suggestion that some people who are not happy do not raise their concerns, it is perfectly true there are almost certainly a number of such persons. My colleagues and I have managed the emergency desks or complaint desks, for want of a better description, for the past six or seven years. If there is an issue with an examination paper, the complaint desks will receive significant communications traffic. Notwithstanding that this examination was new and, therefore, a flight into the unknown and that we had petitions, media reporting and uncertainty in advance of it, we experienced the quietest afternoon after an English examination that I have experienced. Beforehand, we wondered what would happen.